Soldier

Saw Soldier, a sci-fi about a group of super-sodiers trained from birth by The Government. The protagonist is a hostage-killing dude named Todd (get it?) He is shown going through a montage of battles before being replaced by a new edition of super-duper-soldiers. The duper-ness of the other soldiers is established in a one-on-one fist fight between Todd one of the other soldiers (overseen by Officer Thin-Moustache. Guess who the villain is?) In the battle Todd is bested but he manages to put out one of his opponent's eyes. This creates (and loudly broadcasts the creation of) a one-eyed nemesis. He (Todd) is then exiled to Trash Planet, occupied by Space Hippies who teach him how to feel.

At this point the film comes into its best moments, I feel. Todd slowly comes to terms with post-combat life in a great, though fairly melodramatic, depiction of post traumatic stress disorder. The volatility of his situation is allowed to take centre stage for a while. I was really interested in how super-soldier Todd, who has known only the fear and comfort of discipline, would adapt to space-farmer life. There's a fascinating story there somewhere. But, just as he's beginning to get the hang of this not-killing-people thing, the showdown comes, as it inevitably must, and the film descends back into stupid action-film hedonism once more.

The film ends on a morally dubious note. (spoiler)I particularly thought the condemnation of Officer Thin-Moustache's co-officers for collusion was a bit of a difficult position for a veteran to hold. We can only presume Todd's wars were just ones.(/spoiler) The sci-fi effects restrain themselves to a dusty, junky aesthetic, like Firefly. They're used to good effect and I was duly impressed. The story, apart from that surprising middle section, is predictable and boilerplate. This is not a bad movie, it's just nothing special. The sci-fi element is it's most compelling one, but even that feels a bit gimmicky (honestly, this story could very easily have taken place on earth.) It's fun though and has kick-ass bits and dramatic bits. There's something there about the necessity of violence, but it falls back on the old crutch of assuming other people are without reason. Nothing new here, but repackaged slickly and prettily.

PS - Apparently there's a ton of sci-fi-movie references and Kurt Russel references hidden in the film that I missed. So, have fun spotting them!